Effective immediately, Do it Best has promoted Bob Harville to the post of regional sales and business development manager.

In his new role, Harville and his team of territory managers will counsel Do it Best members as well as actively seek to recruit new ones. Harville will lead a team of 10 territory managers across 12 states in the Southeast.

The National Retail Federation performed an internal shuffle, first by hiring Paul Martino as VP and senior policy counsel and second by promoting Beth Provenzano to VP for Federal Government Relations.

An employer can look at its employees’ posts on social networking sites, but it needs to be careful in how it responds -- or does not -- to what it sees there.

In testimony before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on March 12, 2014, employment law attorney Jonathan Segal, speaking on behalf of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), said: “To ignore social media today is like ignoring e-mail 20 years ago. Social media is no longer cutting-edge; it is now mainstream.”

Jerry Howard, CEO the National Association of Home Builders, will speak at the Spring Meeting & Legislative Conference. He will join Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) at the Washington Briefing Breakfast April 1.

Howard has worked as a legislative analyst at the National Association of Realtors, the chief lobbyist for the National Council of State Housing Agencies, and tax counsel for the NAHB. He was promoted to NAHB's executive VP and CEO in February 2001.

On June 26, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court, in United States v. Windsor, found unconstitutional Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which had prohibited the federal government from acknowledging marriages between same-sex couples. Same-sex marriages were recognized as legal by 12 states and the District of Columbia at the time of the ruling.

The Department of Treasury has decided to delay much-contested employer provisions of the Affordable Care Act until Jan. 1, 2015, giving businesses more time to adjust to the requirements without incurring penalties. As a result of the delay, businesses with greater than 50 employees will have one more year before the coverage mandate kicks in, by which time the administration intends to streamline reporting requirements. Reactions, which were plentiful, ranged from gratitude to criticism.

When an employee requires a period of leave because of a medical issue or disability, the situation is not always straightforward, and the best way to manage it is not always clear. Adding to the confusion is that employers face an ever-changing alphabet soup of federal and state laws and regulations, starting with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals today ordered that consumers in six states -- California, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota and Texas -- who allege that Sears sold them allegedly defective Kenmore front-loading "high efficiency" washing machines manufactured by Whirlpool may band together in a class action.

The National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association (NLBMDA) applauded the Federal Court decision voiding the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) move to curb employer and employee rights by speeding up union elections. The rule change had gone into effect on April 30 and cut in half the amount of time permitted for voting on unionization. With as few as 15 days notice, employers would have insufficient time to seek counsel and freely speak and negotiate with employees ahead of a vote.

In a case involving a car battery that exploded in a consumer’s hands, a federal court in New Jersey has reaffirmed the longstanding notion that retailers can be found strictly liable when they sell defective products. The Nov. 2 decision by U.S. District Court Judge Peter G. Sheridan potentially places a heavy burden on home improvement chains and other retailers considered “experts” in their industries.

Universal Forest Products has named David Tutas as general counsel of the corporation. He succeeds Matthew Missad, who was appointed CEO earlier this year.

Tutas joined Universal as an attorney in 2003. In 2007, he was named director of the legal department at Universal. Before he joined the company, Tutas was an attorney with the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based firm of Nantz, Litowich, Smith & Girard.